Her landlord had also been understanding of the situation, giving her relief from rent until the cafe could trade again.
“We are all part of it. If we stick together and try our hardest, we have a better chance of getting things going again. And it will be nice to get back to doing something.
“We are looking forward to looking after our customers again as much as possible – all our team are.”
Businesses reopening at Level 3 must stick to strict conditions, with a focus on hygiene and social distancing.
Every order must be made by phone call from your car parked outside if you have to, but do not queue in person is the advice. This applies from high-end restaurants through to fish and chip shops.
Payment has to be by Eftpos, preferably Paywave, with cash available only if the transaction can be done safely with no contact. It is up to each business whether they offer a cash option.
The name and phone number of every customer will be recorded as part of the Government's contact tracing programme. This is in case anyone in a place of business has Covid-19, then a list of contacts are ready to call.
To find out if your local food favourite is open for contactless transactions, call them.
Small business owner Ben McKnight wanted to speak up on behalf of all business owners to ask people to keep it local.
“I see people on Facebook saying they can't wait for KFC and McDonald's to open.
“Well, I think the best way to restart our economy is to start with our own community. Think of your neighbours.
“That's what we do as New Zealanders; we help each other. Hopefully we won't see massive queues outside the big brand takeaways.”
Mr McKnight says he knows big brands employ local people, too, but says staff there get their low wage no matter how busy they are.
“They'll be on an hourly rate, so if people run them off their feet they will be even more overworked and underpaid, whereas if we go down to our local fish and chip shop, them being run off their feet means they're making good money.”
Mr McKnight owns Lawn and Yard Solutions.
He is looking forward to getting back to work and wants to help make sure as many small businesses survive as possible.
Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club restaurant owner Darrel Gregory has made sure all the compliance legislation to operate under Level 3 have been completed and will make sure everyone is vigilant about social distancing and washing hands.
The motivation to open on Tuesday was because he had bills to pay and it would be good to get staff working again, he said.
“We want to give something back and offer our diners the delicacies they are used to.”
Based on the response from the Facebook post about their reopening, it looks like they are going to be busy.
Also reopening in the inner harbour area under Level 3 will be Crawford Road Kitchen and Gisborne Wine Centre.
At the Gladstone Road Bridge end of the city centre Frank and Albie's will offer online orders, as they have been doing for two years.
GEM Cuisine offers contactless deliveries of food, including large platters, and can be found on Facebook.
For those who want Turkish cuisine, Sofra on Gladstone Road will open but The Herald was unable to get a hold of any others to see if they would as well.
Not every hospitality business will make it out the other side.
The Bookshop Café upstairs from Muirs Bookshop will not reopen.
Owner Kim Pittar said the decision to close the cafe was made well before Covid-19.
“We were losing our main two staff — one through injury and one is pregnant — and training someone else is expensive.
“There are so many cafes in Gisborne, we just decided to pull out of a very unproductive industry, where the continual increase in wages meant increases in all prices, thus decreasing the numbers of people coming through the cafe.
“It is a shame. Books and coffee go together well.”
